Things you are too embarrassed to admit you don't understand

[ClassicStripe]

I don't think I really understand what a fascist is.

I don't think that's right. Jealous and envy have very similar meanings and can often be used interchangably. Jealousy tends to imply more hostility/negativity where as envy, though it can also be used negatively (e.g. "green with envy"), is more neutral.

If I envy your salary, I wish I had that salary myself, it doesn't necessarily mean I feel negatively towards you. If I'm jealous of your salary it suggests I feel hostile towards you on account of your salary.

The offside rule. It’s been explained to me numerous times but my brain just won’t retain the information.

In other words, one is a verb (affect) and one is a noun (effect).

I completely concur with the record one - how on earth can grooves on vinyl produce the varied and nuanced sounds that it does?! Mind-boggling.

Same with data (so the internet, TV, Radio etc.) - I know that it's all about light/sound/electricity/radio pulses or waves, but I just cannot get my head around how such intricate pictures/sounds etc. can be converted into something so intangible and then back into their original form.

I don’t understand how there can be more than a hundred percent e.g. 120%. Per cent means per hundred so how can a percentage be above 100%?

A math teacher did try to explain it to me but I still didn’t quite get it.

This is an entertaining thread! 😁

I am now going to start buying biological washing powder as today's revelation has taught me why after a full cycle I still find the odd little stain. Although I still have a few months worth of non bio to get through. Perhaps I can mix the two types. Oh the dichotomy.

I loved the post re voices coming from vinyl grooves 😂

Envy to me is harmless and healthy but jealousy can be dangerous.

What exactly IS an enzyme?

I use excel every day for logging stuff and can make very basic spreadsheets. I went on intermediate excel training at work - and 5 minutes in I realised I should have started with the beginners one !

Thanks, I'll add to this thread that I have no real idea what a sodding verb or noun is. But I can speak proper, I promise innit.

Who first thought of serving gammon with pineapple?

What was in Compo’s matchbox?

Is being superstitious unlucky?

@Cantstaystuckforever So I'm ignorant because I don't know many homosexual couples? I'm a severely disabled, widowed parent to a child that hates the leaving the house! I'm not ignorant I'm just isolated!!! I'm trying to understand it better. That's all.

I've read the rest of your post 3 times and I still don't fully understand exactly what you're saying. I'm not stereotyping anyone, this isn't about wokeness or stereotyping. I simply asked if there was a reason for it.
OF COURSE there are heterosexual women who are happily married to men who are what you may describe as masculine in nature - I literally said that in my post! I said that masculinity & femininity seems to vary hugely amongst heterosexual couples!

Cryptocurrency. Bitcoin.
Quantitative easing.
I’ve tried reading articles but I can’t begin to understand.

Inflation 😡

Ooh that would be it!

Effect is a noun and affect is a verb .

Past vs passed. I just avoid writing either one. (I have an undergrad in English studies)

The locks one has always bothered me. I can see how they work. But why we have them, is what I want to know?

I think it's to do with a change in river levels - so if we didn't have them, there would be rapids or a waterfall, which obviously a boat couldn't get over.

Is that it or have I just made it up?

Past - History "In the past, things were different"

Passed - Passing something as you go by "I passed the park today on my drive home "

How people compose pieces of music. It's like witchcraft to me.

I don’t truly understand anything to do with nutrition.

I found out from years of trial and error that I am sugar intolerant and that dairy gives me spots, so I don’t eat either. But I have no clue why others can consume sugar and dairy just fine!

Most things finance related, interest rates, hedge funds, what bankers do, stock markets, pensions. Why mortgages are put up so that people can't afford their homes etc. Someone somewhere must be making those decisions so why don't they just... Not do that?

I cannot understand flight. I understand the explanation of air rushing over and under the wings causing lift, but my head cannot comprehend how this means a massive tube of metal full of people can take off and fly in the actual sky so easily. Or television, radio, the internet, anything electronic. In fact, most of the things explained by physics I do not get. And I've got a degree in physics 🤔

Also. History. In general. I have studied many things and have a fair amount of knowledge in other areas - but historical facts just do not stick in my brain. If someone tries to explain something to do with history to me, I glaze over. I wish I knew why this was!

I dont understand how we figured out which mushrooms we could eat, which kill us and which make us high without someone saying "maybe lets not eat these"

@HappyJoyousFree Crucially though, if referring back to passing by the park in past tense, it would be "I went past the park"

Recent past tense = "I passed by the park earlier"
Past tense "I went past the park"

How disingenuous of you MrsJayy 😉

Just being silly as it's said so much on MN!